CompTIA community staff leader, Moheb Moses and CompTIA industry relations senior vice-president, Nancy Hammervik
The reason for establishing CompTIA was to drive the IT industry forward, according to CompTIA industry relations senior vice-president, Nancy Hammervik. She was speaking at the global trade association’s first meet in Australia.
Hammervik addressed some of the changes CompTIA has embarked on to lead businesses through the evolution. They include a change in the membership model, an updated website, and a new sales and marketing toolkit amongst others.
She claimed the Australian ICT channel would benefit from it.
“We form a community when we’re asked for it. People were asking for CompTIA in Australia, saying there needs to be some standardisation in the channel, some best practices, and a community that’s vendor neutral,” she said.
Hammervik added that educating the IT channel with training, certifying the workforce, being advocates for technology, and giving back through philanthropy will be the organisation’s four key focuses.
“It’s not about lead generation or selling but about collaborating together and helping to share insights on best ways to practice in the channel.”
Hammervik also addressed the lack of diversity in the IT industry, and claimed CompTIA will be supporting communities that aim to get young women and girls to embark on a career in ICT.
“There is a major skills gap and we need to get people interested in IT,” she indicated.
Channel Dynamics director and CompTIA community staff leader, Moheb Moses, used the opportunity to address how businesses should more ready for change.
“And why do businesses need to change? It’s a response to client and end user needs, external market factors, customer preferences, competitive positioning and innovation.
“But businesses need to know why they are changing. If you don’t know why you need change, it won’t work. If you don’t know why you need the channel, it won’t work,” Moses saidd.
He claimed the maturing of the third platform – Cloud, mobile, Big Data and social – is putting margins under pressure. But he added that it’s not about the products but what businesses do with it.
“It’s about adapting. Change comes at a cost and they have to do it at the right time. A change too soon, often, slow, or late will be you making the wrong change. You need to build a successful strategy for change.”
According to Moses, some ways to do so is by adding a new profit centre, expanding the company portfolio, changing a business customer target, expanding geographically or through merging or being acquired.
He also said businesses need to measure their ability to change and map out a model to reach goals.
“Engagement is the key; you need a vision and some sort of direction. People don’t change for the sake of it. Your organisation should also be capable of change. We need to make good, rational reasons for it,” he added.
CompTIA is also looking to build two more communities, in Europe and Latin America, in the coming months.
